The present invention relates to a seal structure installed to a bottom part of a rear pillar of a retractable roof vehicle, in which a movable roof is folded and stored in a storage.
FIG. 1 shows an outlook appearance of a retractable roof vehicle in which a roof that opens and closes is folded to open an inner-cabin side of a vehicle. The roof is made of a soft top 1. As illustrated by the two-dotted line in the drawing, a storage lid 3 covering a storage area 2 on a lower rear side of the vehicle is opened as it is pushed to the upper rearward standing position, and the roof folded is stored inside the storage 2. The storage area 2 is also used as a trunk room, while there is another type of a storage that is independent from the trunk room. There is a type of roof that is made, instead of the soft top, of a roof panel and a back window panel disposed behind the roof panel, and the roof panel is folded and overlaid on the back window panel and stored in the storage area 2. A type of vehicle having such roof is generally called a retractable hardtop, a coupe cabriolet, or a coupe convertible.
As shown in FIG. 2 (which illustrates a rear part of the retractable roof vehicle in which the soft top 1 is excluded), in the rear part of the retractable roof vehicle, a body side weather strip 10 makes elastic contact with an under surface of the storage lid 3 when the storage lid 3 is closed, thereby sealing between the storage lid 3 and the body of the vehicle. The body side weather strip 10 is installed along a flange (not shown) provided to an edge portion of a body side aperture for the storage lid 3. A storage lid side weather strip 20 is overlaid on a body side weather strip 10 when the storage lid 30 is closed, thereby sealing between the storage lid 3 and the body of the vehicle and preventing an intrusion of water. The storage lid side weather strip 20 is installed to a front left and a front right sides of the storage lid 3 with clips and adhesion tapes (both of which are not shown). (In FIG. 2, a storage lid side weather strip to be installed to a right side of the vehicle is not shown.)
Moreover, a roof side weather strip 30 is installed to a rear frame (not shown) of the soft top 1. When the soft top 1 is spread out, the roof side weather strip 30 makes elastic contact with an upper front surface of the storage lid 3, thereby sealing between the soft top 1 and the storage lid 3 and preventing an intrusion of water.
In this specification, the upward, downward, forward, backward, leftward and rightward directions are determined in relative to the vehicle directed in the forward direction.
The seal structure described above, however, fails to provide a good sealing property. That is, the body side weather strip 10 and the storage lid side weather strip 20 include die molded parts with a shape of a flat fin piece, and the fin piece of the storage lid side weather strip 20 is simply overlaid on the fin piece of the body side weather strip 10 at a bottom part of the rear pillar 4 of the retractable roof vehicle to provide a sealing performance. Accordingly, the seal structure cannot provide a good sealing property.
In order to overcome the above problem, a die molded part 101 of the body side weather strip 10 may include a hollow seal part that makes elastic contact with the storage lid side weather strip 20. However, when the soft top 1 is opened or closed, the roof side weather strip 30 slides on the die molded part 101 of the body side weather strip 10 at a time the roof side weather strip 30 makes elastic contact with the body side weather strip 10, and thus the body side weather strip 10 has to be made with a highly solid material to avoid any damages.
Therefore, if the hollow seal part is included in the die molded part 101 of the body side weather strip 10, the hollow seal part also has to be made with a solid material, which deteriorates flexibility and a sealing function of the weather strips.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a seal structure for a retractable roof vehicle, which is able to prevent water from intruding between a storage lid and a body of a vehicle.